Kentucky Supreme Court Asked to Review Damages for Fetus Death

The Kentucky Supreme Court is being asked to review a lawsuit seeking damages for the death of an early-term fetus in a car crash.

The lawsuit was brought by Thomas A. Stevens on behalf of his 24-year-old daughter, Desiree Amber Stevens, and her 14-week-old fetus, both of whom died in the 2008 crash in Estill County.

The other driver and Stevens’ insurance carrier, Progressive Direct, settled on behalf of Desiree Stevens, but refused to pay anything for the fetus.

Circuit Judge Thomas Jones ruled they didn’t have to and last month the Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling, according to The Courier-Journal.

“Harsh as it seems,” Jones wrote, damages for a “non-viable fetus are not recoverable.”

Now, Thomas Stevens and his attorney, J.T. Gilbert, are asking the state Supreme Court to consider the suit.

Gilbert says in interviews and legal briefs that Kentucky courts allow compensation for the wrongful death of a viable fetus, which is defined as one able to live outside the womb. He also argues that state lawmakers have proclaimed in other areas of law that life begins at conception.

However the appellate judges ruled unanimously on July 29 that Kentucky’s wrongful death statute says damages may be recovered only for the death of a “person.”

Last year, a different Court of Appeals panel issued a similar ruling, affirming the denial of damages for the death of a fetus delivered prematurely at 24 weeks. The court found the fetus had never been viable.

Recovery for the wrongful death of viable fetuses is allowed in most states, but only nine allow it for fetuses before viability, according to Chicago-based Americans United for Life.

The case doesn’t directly involve abortion rights, but advocates on both sides of the issue say the outcome of the case could have ramifications.

Thomas More Society executive director Peter Breen opposes abortion and says anytime the law recognizes “the humanity of an unborn child, people in favor of life would support that.”

“To say to a mother that a child has value at 25 weeks but not at 20 weeks, that just makes no sense,” he said.

Lynn Paltrow, who founded an abortion-rights group calls National Advocates for Pregnant Women, said there is “no question that pregnancies have profound meaning for people” but that wrongful death lawsuits can be exploited and used to undermine the right to abortion.

“Cases like this should have no implications for abortion,” she said. “Nevertheless, they do.”

Gilbert said Stevens filed the suit “to honor the fact that he had a grandchild.”

“He wasn’t just a fetus to us — he was a boy and he had a name, Logan Dylan,” said Desiree Stevens’ mother, Sheila Stevens.

Topics Kentucky